An Update on SOX Compliance Issues

sox compliance

Earlier this week I attended a webinar hosted by KPMG about the current state of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, since 2023 is coming toward a close and audit professionals need to start thinking about the SOX compliance season that will start up early next year. We have lots to go through here.  For starters, SOX compliance does…

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Fresh Stats on Cyber & Privacy Risks

key controls

We have a fascinating new snapshot of cybersecurity risks these days — including companies racing to embrace cloud computing without fully understanding the security fundamentals, insecure mobile applications, and persistent bad habits with software patching and encryption. Said snapshot comes from Coalfire, one of the more notable cybersecurity and compliance software firms, which just released…

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SOX Costs Drop; Struggles Don’t

sox compliance

Sarbanes-Oxley compliance costs fell for many companies last year, according to an analysis released this week — although time spent on SOX compliance work actually rose, suggesting that many companies are struggling to implement automation technologies even as demands from their audit firms keep rising.  In other words, as usual, SOX compliance is a bit…

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Another Example for SOX & Cybersecurity

cybersecurity

From time to time I’ve written about how poor cybersecurity and software patch management leads to faulty internal financial controls. Now a bank in Tennessee has disclosed a cybersecurity breach that seems to demonstrate the case.  The bank, First Horizon Corp. ($FHN), disclosed the breach in an SEC filing last week. The breach wasn’t large,…

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SOX Compliance Struggles Onward

sox compliance

SOX compliance professionals trying to find your place in the world may want to read the latest survey from the SOX Professionals Group. It’s full of benchmarking statistics about the challenges of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance this year and the technologies compliance teams are eyeing to get the job done.  The report, “2020 State of SOX &…

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Report: SOX Costs, Hours Rising Again

sox compliance

Protiviti just released its latest report on Sarbanes-Oxley compliance practices, and internal audit professionals may want to brace themselves. Costs are rising, manhours are rising, automation isn’t happening nearly as quickly as one might hope — and that was all the case before Covid-19 made everything more difficult. The report surveyed 735 internal audit professionals…

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Internal Audit Survey-Palooza

internal audit

Spring is the season for surveys about the internal audit world, so today we have three recent studies to help audit and compliance executives understand the concerns driving that particular function right now. No surprise: those concerns are data and technology, all the way down. First we have PwC’s 2018 State of Internal Audit report,…

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New Audit Report Format Approved

audit

Auditors and corporate reporting professionals everywhere, prepare yourselves: The SEC has approved the new, more detailed format for external auditors’ reports! The new standard, drafted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board after seven years of negotiations, requires audit firms to disclose “critical audit matters” (CAMs) they find while auditing your financial statements. That approach…

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PCAOB Sets New Audit Report Format

audit

Compliance and audit executives, set your countdown clocks: a new type of audit report will be arriving at your organization three years from now. Today the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board finally adopted a new standard for the report, which will require more disclosure of “critical audit matters” that weigh on the mind of your…

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Some Other Posts Worth Reading

compliance

Occasionally I write guest posts about compliance and governance topics elsewhere on the Web. Three of those posts have recently gone live, one about third-party risk management and two others about the proper love and care of SOX compliance programs. If you just can’t get enough of me, here is a run-down of where to…

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